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Life

Richard Kruspe was born in Wittenberge, East Germany. He has two older sisters and an older brother (Gordon Kruspe). His parents divorced when he was young. His mother remarried, but he did not get along with his stepfather. They moved to the village of Weisen when he was young. Because of the poor relationship with his step-father, Kruspe often ran away from home in his early teens and slept on park benches. He later got into wrestling as a way to channel his anger.

Richard lived in Schwerin, from where he moved to Berlin in 1988. He got into a demonstration by accident on October 10, 1989, and found himself surrounded by the police. Along with others, he was dragged onto a truck which drove to Weißensee, to a police station. He had to stand on a wall for six hours if he would move he got hit by a police officer. Richard was locked away for three days. Because of that experience, Richard made the plan to leave the GDR. He fled over Hungary and Austria to West Berlin.

In 1993 he planned to start his own band. After the wall came down he moved back to Schwerin to meet with Till. Often during work Till began to sing, which directly impressed Richard. Without a special reason, Richard recorded a few takes of Till's singing. A few weeks later he convinced Till to try to sing and record for his planned band.

At the age of sixteen, Kruspe and some friends visited Czechoslovakia, where he bought a guitar. He had originally planned to sell it because they were very expensive and thought he could make a nice profit. However, once he returned to East Germany, a girl at a campground he was staying at asked him to play. He told her that he couldn’t play, but she kept insisting, and Kruspe got mad and started strumming the strings. “The harder I played,” Richard said, “the more excited she got. Something clicked in my head and I realized girls like guys who play guitars.” This got him interested in playing the guitar, and as a result, he began playing every day and night for the next two years.